Kigali: China's President Xi Jinping inked 15 deals including loans and grants worth millions of dollars with Rwanda on Monday as part of a whistle-stop tour to cement relations with African allies.
Among the deals agreed, the value of which was not revealed, were loans for road construction, hospital renovation and the development of Rwanda's new Bugesera airport. As part of his first overseas trip since being re-elected in March, Xi last week visited Senegal to conclude a raft of trade accords.
He will head to Johannesburg on Tuesday for a summit of the BRICS emerging economies -- Brazil, China, India, Russia and South Africa.
Since taking office, Xi has overseen efforts to expand Chinese influence in Africa.
China has already provided vast sums to the continent with Beijing's financial largesse raising fears that poor nations are unprepared for such massive debts. "We are bound with common interest. To grow our solidarity with Africa is an important foundation for China's foreign policy," said Xi at a media conference where no questions were taken.
Rwandan President Paul Kagame added that the agreements showed "what is possible between our two countries".
Rwanda, which is one of Africa's fastest growing economies, had trade with China worth USD 157 million (134 million euros) in 2017, making Beijing one of Kigali's largest trade partners.
India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi is also set to arrive in Kigali on Monday on his own five-day African tour which will also take him to Uganda before he heads to the BRICS summit.
Earlier, Chinese President Xi Jinping arrives in Africa on Monday on a four-nation visit seeking deeper military and economic ties while his rival in a bitter trade war, the Trump administration, shows little interest in the world's second most populous continent.
This is Xi's first trip abroad since he was appointed to a second term in March with term limits removed, allowing him to rule for as long as he wants. That rang familiar to some of Africa's long-entrenched leaders. China is already Africa's largest trading partner, and it opened its first military base on the continent last year in the Horn of Africa nation of Djibouti, which this month launched a China-backed free trade zone it calls the largest in Africa.
After surpassing the US in arms sales to Africa in recent years, China this month hosted dozens of African military officials for the first China-Africa defense forum. Xi is stopping in Senegal and then Rwanda ahead of his participation in a summit of the BRICS emerging economies in South Africa that starts on Wednesday.